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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Walking a Labyrinth

It's easy to forget what it's like to work in a beautiful natural setting. My program is housed in the interior of the Eastside satellite building. The entrance is through a gritty parking lot. There is no comparison to Chatham University's lovely main campus on a sunny day with balmy temperatures.

My students were doing ergonomic computer work station evaluations for administrative employees on the main campus. Outside Berry Hall there is a labyrinth that was built in memory of a young woman's tragic death. Its made of grass and cobble stones in an ancient design.

It had a wonderful sense of invitation about it and I got drawn into the walk. I experienced it as a unique participatory art form. The shadows on the labyrinth made me think of Maxfield Parrish's sense of color and fantasy. I found myself trying to figure out if the path was positive or negative space. I don't know why that is important but I kept thinking about it.

There was a distinct sense of destination when I arrived at the center. The photo below shows the path into the center. I had just enough time to follow the walk back to the beginning before my students arrived. It was a wonderful start to my work day.

This evening I've learned just how old labyrinths are. This is a stone carving from the bronze age.

I like this type of archetypal imagery. I don't know what it symbolizes and yet it still draws me to interact with it. It occurs to me that a piece of jewelry of a labyrinth would be very useful when I must endure a long and boring meeting.